


Milestones

by Hit_or_Mish



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders-centric, Background Dr. Emile Picani, Background Sleep | Remy Sanders, Background Thomas Sanders, Gen, Lamp - Freeform, Mentions of Therapy, Mentions of medication, Platonic LAMP - Freeform, Platonic PolySanders - Freeform, Virgil & Remy Are Siblings, Virgil & thomas are siblings, calm, it can be romantic if you squint and tilt your head to the left, university related stress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:42:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21696385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hit_or_Mish/pseuds/Hit_or_Mish
Summary: After deciding to take a gap year, Virgil Sanders expected to enter his freshman year of college feeling anxious and out of place. But not if his childhood friends; Patton Hart, Roman Prince and Logan Croft have anything to say about it.For The Core of Us fanzine on Tumblr.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil & Creativity | Roman & Logic | Logan & Morality | Patton
Comments: 2
Kudos: 36





	Milestones

**Author's Note:**

> This was for the Core of Us fanzine on Tumblr. If you enjoyed this, do check the Zine out and give the team and contributors some love as well~ It's free to download and can be found at @sanders-sides-fanzine.
> 
> This version is slightly different from the Zine version due to the word count limit. This has a tiny bit more detail but it's relatively minor. There's also some very little things I changed here and there.
> 
> Enjoy!

It was, by all means, a normal summer day for one Virgil Sanders. He woke up, had breakfast, took his meds and logged on to chat with his close friends. That is, until his mother told him he had mail before she headed out to work. She had kissed him on the top of his head, as if she didn’t just send a jolt of electricity striking through his heart- oblivious as she handed him money to share with his siblings.

He excused himself from their voice chat and went down to retrieve it. As though psychic, each of his friends wished him luck in their own ways. They gushed and reassured him in their group chat while sending something totally separate in their Direct messages to him. Patton sent him a wholesome, motivating meme. Logan sent him a single question mark- An inside joke between them that stemmed from a Tumblr post Virgil saw ages ago about Victor Hugo. Roman began blowing up his direct messages with fragments of excited texts. He in particular was excited for Virgil to finally join them in campus after taking a gap year for mental health reasons.

He passed by his baby brother watching his morning cartoons. His middle brother, Remy was probably still asleep. Virgil ruffled Thomas’ hair as he retreated back to his bedroom.

A whirl of emotions settled in his stomach after Virgil closed the door behind him. It began settling into a poisonous miasma of nervousness and dread, both very hot and very icy.

Virgil slid a nail edge under the flap- tearing it open. He took the contents out, scanned the words and-

…

“…Oh…”

.

.

.

His status soon went from online to idle and finally, offline.

.

.

.

That night, Patton spent his evening fretting over the lack of a reply. Where was the usual emoji of a purple heart? Frustrated, he finally stopped pacing around his room long enough to go down to the kitchen. His freckled face screwed in determination while he took out his mixing bowls. Now, what was the recipe for chocolate brownies again?

Logan waited with bated breath for that single exclamation point. Over the next few hours, he forced himself to calm down. He reminded himself that Virgil probably needed logic and reason the most at this moment. He put away his phone and began looking up the procedure for an admission appeal. The date shouldn’t be too far away, right? Or perhaps even at another institution nearby?

Roman found himself wishing for a snarky reply about how much they will be seeing each other on campus. He waited as time stretched out to midnight and beyond. Before he slept, he made a mental note to find his copy of Black Cauldron amongst his extensive collection of Disney Movies. A Disney movie night never failed to cheer his friend up!

.

.

.

Next mid afternoon, Virgil found himself nervously tapping his feet as he waited for someone to pick up the call he was making. He spent earlier that morning in his regular therapy sessions with his therapist. Virgil mainly talked about his current development of events. Doctor Picani had advised him to talk to his support system about his fears, and to be open to them. And that was what Virgil was attempting to do.

_"Hello?? Virgil?"_

Virgil swallowed, throat suddenly dry.

"Hey Pat… um…" 

Patton, bless him, patiently waited for Virgil instead of bombarding him with questions. 

_"Take your time kiddo. Roman and Logan are with me, do you want this to be on speaker?"_

"Yeah, Sure… That'll uh… That'll be swell." 

Great. Might as well get this over with. There was a click and Virgil can hear rustling from the other line. 

_"Virgil,"_ He heard Logan speak in his calm timbre, _"Are you well?"_

"Yeah I am actually… just ...well," A deep breath, "I got accepted Lo." 

_"Ah… Congratulations!"_ Logan sounded sincere, while there was a flurry of voices in the background. Probably Roman and Patton being excited.

"Thanks Lo…" Virgil sat down on his bed heavily. 

_"You don't sound so happy about it, J Delightful. You didn’t even came back to talk to us yesterday,”_

Virgil tried not to wince. "I am Ro.. I am… But… God. I’m sorry for being a jerk. When I read the letter. I was…happy. But…" 

_"…You panicked?"_

"... Yeah…" Virgil mumbled, beginning to rub his eyes, "And it's not even because I'm struggling. Dr P and I are doing great! My meds are fine. He's teaching me how to deal with everything… But I still feel…" 

_"Unprepared…?"_

Patton's calming voice sort of broke something in him, and Virgil felt his throat close up and his eyes water. 

“…Scared…"

_"Oh kiddo…"_

_"Virgil- You know that you don't have to go now. There's always the option of delaying or opting to start at the second intake,"_

"I know that Lo…But I really want to go NOW. But ugh…" Virgil let himself fall back onto his bed and sniffed, "I just got so overwhelmed. Thinking of the things I need to pack, classes, paperwork…Picking a major. Where do I even BEGIN?"

_"We understand. Look, I apologize, but me and Specs need to go soon. How do you feel about Patton coming over to keep you company? We’ll handle the other stuff later- together."_

_"That's right Kiddo! I have some brownies here with your name on em!"_

Virgil wiped his eyes with the edge of his hoodie sleeve, "That sounds… amazing, Pat. You'd do that?" 

_"In a Hart-beat,"_ The pun made Virgil smile. _"And if you want, I can help you find some on campus resources. The counselling department has some amazing counsellors,"_

Virgil took a deep breath, and exhaling slowly. That's as good as a start as any, he supposed. "... Yeah.. I think I'd like that…Thanks Patton" 

_"Excellent. I shall look up other relevant information for a later date."_

"Right…" Virgil agreed, "Thanks L...Princey. I appreciate it a lot." 

_"Anything for our emo."_

_"See you soon Virgil!"_

. 

. 

. 

The next few days passed by like a blur. It was all hands on deck, with Patton, Logan and Roman helping him in all matters big and small. 

Patton came by, gave him a hug and fed him the brownies. Later, he sat with Virgil in front of his computer, guiding him on all the resources available on campus. After a while, Virgil found himself mulling very little as he sent an email to a counsellor on campus to set up an appointment. In fact, he daresay he started to look forward to it. Patton was there throughout the whole process, just generally providing the best help he could have ever asked for. Virgil asked him questions extensively, and Patton patiently answered each and every one.

His support and help prompted Virgil to later wear a small enamel badge he found while browsing a thrift store. It had a dog and a pun (Stay Paw-sitive!) which was groan worthy, but it reminded Virgil that there are people looking out and supporting him at every turn in his life. 

With an appointment with a counsellor now booked, Virgil turned his attention to his classes. In this area, Logan came in- keen and determined. 

Armed with several sheets of printed out information, he came to Virgil's house the night after Patton left.

He explained Virgil's options, going through one suggestion at a time. He reassured him about choosing his major, telling him that he can remain undeclared as long as he needed to. But advised to be mindful about what classes he decides to take. Highlighter in hand, they slowly but surely mapped out the classes Virgil could register in his first year. It was balanced in that it both provided enough time for him to settle in his new environment and for Virgil to still get the credit hours he needed.

It was because of Logan that Virgil started carrying with him a small nondescript journal. No bigger than his palm, he wrote everything in it, from reminders to To Do lists.The journal never left his hoodie pocket. It helped him plan, and made him recall Logan's words that learning is always something that Virgil has control over. 

Roman literally came in full force- barging in early one morning and boisterously announcing his arrival to help him pack. Surprisingly, he was very helpful. He took the time to help Virgil organise everything and all the while, they just… talked. They bantered and joked. Each day, Roman never failed to show up. He skillfully took Virgil's mind of the stress of moving away as the date crawled nearer. He talked about the plays that will be put on that semester, promising to introduce Virgil to the cast and crew. Remembering their high school days, Virgil promised to consider trying out as the crew and Roman smiled encouragingly, saying nothing more. 

And if Virgil started wearing a little red in any instance where he needed a boost of confidence, Roman didn't need to know that too.

.

.

. 

Virgil admitted he took a little while to get to certain milestones compared to his best friends. But as Roman's car began to move away from their neighbourhood, Logan's GPS pre-set to Florida University and Patton's brownies started being passed around, he realized that taking his time was well worth it. 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr at @shadowling-guistical :)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Miles To Go](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29087037) by [LostyK](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostyK/pseuds/LostyK)




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